Saturday, August 17, 2013

#126- Organizing to Defend Public Education and Workers

Attack
Educators (and Unions), Attack Public Education…

Education is a labor
intensive "industry".Despite
the efforts to utilize technology to educate students, most experts agree that
students achieve more when they work with qualified, well trained professional
educators.This is confirmed in study
after study, where the positive impact of educators is documented.If we are looking to address student
achievement in a real, meaningful way we need to have a large number of
competent, motivated and prepared educators to help guide students academic,
social and emotional progress.

Given the importance that
so many influential individuals and groups are placing on improving or
"reforming" our educational system, it would seem logical that significant
emphasis would be put on attracting and retaining the best possible candidates
to work with our students.If the goal
of "reformers" was truly to improve our schools it would be
reasonable to assume that they would recognize the need to train, compensate
and support the professionals that are employed to do the labor needed to educate
our students.After all, in a
"market economy" people are free to find the best way to employ their
skills, just like consumers are free to find the best way to spend their
financial resources.

If we put 2 and 2 together
we can see that the real purpose of education "reform" isn't to
improve education, but rather to improve the profit margin for a small number
of education investors.People or groups
who have seen the potential for profiting from students and are trying to take
full advantage of the opportunities.Because the largest expense in education is in the labor needed, these
investors are looking for ways to cut corners and change the demographics of the
educators in schools (assuming that distance learning and on-line schools,
where small numbers of educators can reach large numbers of students without
costly facilities and materials, are not immediately practical ways to do
this).

One way to cut labor costs
is to de-professionalize the education work force.This can be done by making majoring in
education too costly and unattractive for students to choose as a career
field.Increasing costs of higher
education while lowering educator salaries will eliminate many potential
educators from choosing to study education.If you combine this with the availability of alternative programs like
Teach for America
then you can alter the perception of educators as professionals and instead
turn it into an occupation that requires only rudimentary training.Educators will enter the profession without
necessary skills, knowledge and experience thus increasing the, already high,
attrition rate for new educators.This
means that most educators will be at the lowest rungs of the salary scale and
won't stay in the profession long enough to advance in wages.Education suddenly becomes a highly
transitional occupation, not a career.

This phenomena already
exists in high-poverty urban and rural areas.With the ongoing emphasis on cutting school district budgets and
vilifying educators the trend will spread to other areas, making private
schools and technological fixes seem more palatable to many families.

One of the major barriers
standing in the way of these efforts to de-professionalize the education labor
force is the presence of educator unions.These unions work to promote the interests of educators, but they also
give power and protection to educators who fight to try and protect the needs
of students and families.The membership
of these unions provides a potent force to resist the "reforms" that
are being implemented for profit, not for sound educational reasons.In order for educational
"reformers" to have full access to the power and wealth that they
seek, they must eliminate the educator unions.

In order to undermine the
educator unions, "reformers" need to paint unions as barriers to
improving education and remove the ability of the union to serve its
membership."Reformers" have
worked hard to try and portray their efforts as being in the "interests of
the children" and to make it seem like unions only are looking out for
lazy and incompetent educators who don't want to work hard to help
students.Act 10 is an excellent example
of an effort to achieve the latter goal.By eliminating the ability of unions to represent their members in
virtually all matters relating to working conditions, benefits and wages, Governor
Walker was able to put public educator unions on the defensive.Act 10 combined a number of union busting
tactics effectively under the guise of addressing budget concerns.

Education
"reformers" don't want their efforts to be carefully analyzed.Instead they rely on sound bites and rhetoric
that sounds logical, and that pays lip service to American ideals like freedom and
equality of opportunity.Most of these
"reforms" rely on smoke and mirrors and don't adequately replace
things that we know work for students.By attacking on multiple fronts, "reformers" can keep unions
and their professional membership, as well as other experts in education on the
defensive.This eliminates the need for
"reformers" to really defend their proposals until after the changes
they propose have become embedded in policy and practice.

The constant barrage of
anti-education legislation and budgeting combined with the efforts to "divide and conquer"
our communities by trying to create tension between public educators and the
families we serve has manufactured a climate of fear and mistrust.A significant amount of effort has been devoted
to isolating groups and to pitting them against each other.That is the purpose of the negative portrayal
of public schools, the "reformer's" support of things like Parent
Trigger Laws and other efforts to supposedly "empower" families.

These efforts rely on
using data against public schools, and making claims about public schools using
partial, misleading or carefully selected information.The efforts to quantify student achievement
and to grade schools based on specifically chosen statistics are another aspect
of these attacks.All of them
contribute to the belief that our schools are "failing" and that we
face a crisis in education.In a climate
like this it is no wonder that many families are fearful for their children's
future and that they feel a need to act in what they believe to be their
family's self-interest.

The lack of information
and sense of crisis isn't confined to families or the community as a
whole.Educators themselves are feeling
the stress and confusion because of the vast number of new initiatives and
"reforms" that are being pushed in the schools we work in.In addition, the efforts to undermine the
ability of our unions and professional associations to act on our behalf has
made many question the need to organize and act collectively.The message that many new educators are
receiving is very different from the one that educators got in the not so
distant past.This leads to a feeling of
hopelessness and powerlessness for professional educators.

Our political climate
certainly hasn't helped educator morale or done much to support our public
schools.It is easy to point out the
damage to our schools done by Wisconsin Republicans in recent years.The massive cuts to school funding, the
expansion of the voucher system, Act 10 and many other pieces of legislation and
policy are obvious in their impact on public education.However, even the supposed allies of public
schools have done little to really help out the educators, administrators and
school boards in our state and around the nation.For example, Democrats replaced No Child Left
Behind with Race to the Top.In the not
so distant past here in Wisconsin,
Democrats had the same control of state government that the GOP currently
enjoys.Needless to say they didn't take
as much advantage of their power as Governor Walker has.

So, how do we counter
these widespread, powerful and well financed attacks on our public schools and
our public educators?How do we create
an environment where our political leaders are forced to listen to educators
and families instead of lobbyists, publishers and others who seek to profit
from schools?How do we rebuild the
sense of trust and community that should exist around our public schools?How do we insure that all students and
families are given a voice in making our schools places of equal opportunity?

There are no easy answers
or quick fixes to these questions.In
many ways the challenges involved seem insurmountable, especially given the
reality that many educators operate under now and the political climate that
exists.We live in a divided state where
people's opinions are often entrenched and real discussion about issues is
difficult to have publicly.To act
politically or on a large scale invites push back and a constantly swinging
pendulum of public opinion, legislation and policies.

To me the real potential
for making positive change happen lies in building personal connections and
relationships with a wide range of individuals.It is well documented that people mistrust individuals or groups that they
don't have a personal connection to.An
obvious example of this is the fact that a huge majority of families think that
their own public school is excellent, while these exact same families see other
schools as unsatisfactory.We trust what
and who we know.The question for
supporters of public education is how to make these connections and speak our
truth about our schools and our efforts to educate our students.

One way is for educators
to be a visible presence at events around the community.When members of the community see educators
helping at events or active in efforts to improve things in the community they
are forced to look at us in a different way.It becomes more difficult to see educators as lazy and greedy when they
have stood next to you at an event.It
also gives educators an opportunity to have conversations with people who they
might not be in contact with otherwise.Most educators already contribute a lot of time and energy to their
communities outside of their regular work duties.It simply becomes a matter of making sure
that those in the community know who we are and what we do for a living.

Another opportunity for
educators to connect with their community is to make sure that we represent our
profession at school related events and in groups that already exist in our
school communities.Attend local school
board meetings and make it known that you are there as a professional
educator.Attend your school's PTA/O on
a regular basis.Be a presence at
neighborhood association meetings or other similar organizations.Often there isn't a need to speak out or do
more than just be present in order to have an impact.However, it is also good to be ready to
counter potential misinformation that can be a part of the discussions.

It is also possible to
create your own groups or venues for discussion.I'm very excited about a group of parents,
educators and family members that has formed in my school community.We call ourselves SCAPE (School Community
Alliance for Public Education) and have been meeting for over a year to discuss
topics around public education.We have
had members speak at school board meetings and have been vocal about some
issues.However, the strength of the
group lies in its diversity of members and the discussions that we have.Too often discussions about education happen
in isolated, special interest groups.Educators meet with educators, families with families, specific
demographic groups within their own groups, and neighborhoods are divided.Our group is working to try and break these barriers
and have open, honest dialog about our schools.

It is important to create
connections within your professional community.Many educators are feeling isolated and vulnerable and building strong
support networks is important for individuals as well as our profession as a
whole.As the school year begins try to
reach out to fellow educators, especially newer educators or people new to your
building.As we move farther into the
Post Act 10 Era many educators are questioning the need for unions and
collective action.If each educator is
connected to a wider network of peers then they will build educator power and a
sense of commitment to each other that goes beyond contractual language and
legal obligation.Unions originated in a
spirit of cooperation and a shared sense of purpose.The challenges that organized labor faces in
modern Wisconsin
are vast, but they are also an opportunity for us to revitalize our
organizations.

Finally, we can't ignore
the need to be active politically.While
we face an uphill battle here in Wisconsin
it is important that every citizen we encounter is encouraged to participate in
the process.In many communities the end
of the summer means lots of moving and changes in addresses.Be sure that everyone you know has updated
their voter registration information.

All of these efforts will
help to build connections and a network of individuals who listen to and who
trust each other.As I work to organize
members of my school community I am often surprised at the links that are
established between individuals and groups who might not have recognized the
interests they have in common.The more
isolated we are, the more vulnerable we are to policies designed to fragment
our society and to gain power from polarizing the public.It's never too early or too late to reach out
to others and to forge bonds of trust and support.

Flawed
Economic Policies…

Of course public education isn't the only
area where misinformation and rhetoric is used to undermine public confidence
and to increase fear and mistrust.These
efforts are also very visible in the efforts to create economic policies that
benefit a small portion of the population.In order to achieve these goals it is important that the public develops
a fear of government and a fear of regulations.

The political and economic conflicts that
result from these efforts to brand any attempt to improve working conditions
are part of an ongoing battle that appears throughout our history.The push to organize often comes from the
most disenfranchised and undervalued workers.

Their efforts are very
important and need our support.After
all, the current trends in employment are for more and more Americans to be
employed at low wage jobs.If we don't
lend our support to the organizing efforts of these workers then we will see
conditions for all workers continue to decline for the foreseeable future.

This is very true in Wisconsin where we are
seeing a significant change in the direction our state's economic policies are
going.This means that fewer jobs are
being created that are family supporting.Even new businesses that are being created are not benefitting most
workers.